Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1887-05-07
TOTAL ABSTINENCE.
The POpe's Letter to Bishop Ireland in
Favor of the Movement.

The POpes Letter to Bishop Ireland in
Favor of the Movement.
The following is translation of the i'm
portant papal brief in favor Of the total alb
stinence movement addressed to the Rt. Rev.
DR.. Ireland, bishop of st. Paul, Mimi:
To Our Venerable Brother, John Ireland,
Bishop of 81. Paul, MINI, Leo XIII, Pope
Venerable Brother: Health and apostolic
benedictiOn. The admirable works of piety
and charity by which our faithful children
in the United States labor to promote not
only their own temporal and eternal welfare
but also that of their fellow-citizens, and
which you have recently related to us, give
to us exceeding great consolation. And
above all we have rejoiced to learn with what
energy and zeal, by means of various excel
lent associations, and especially through the
Catholic Total Abstinence Union, you COM
bat the destructive vice of intemperance.
For it is well known to us how ruinous, how
deplOrable is the injury both to faith and to
morals that is to be feared from intemper
ance in drink. Nor can we sufficiently
praise the prelates of the United States who
recently in the Plenary Council of Baltimore
with weightiest words condemned this abuse,
declaring it to be a perpetual incentive to sin
and fruitful root of all evils, plunging the
families of the Incorporate into the direst
ruin, and drawing numberless souls down
to everlasting perdition; declaring moreover
tndt tne ldltnIul WHO ylelu tDlS vice OF III
temperance become thereby ascandal to non
Catholics, and great hindrance to the prop
agation of the true religion.
Hence, we esteem worthy of an commend
alton the noble resolve of your pious asso-
Citations, by which they pledge themselves to
abstain totally from every kind of intoxi-
eating drink. Nor can it at all be doubted
that this determination is the proper and
the truly efficacious remedy for this very
great evil; and that so much the more
strongly will all be induced to put this bride
upon appetite by how much the greater are
the dignity and influence of those who give
the example, But greatest of all in this
matter should be the zeal of priests, who, as
they are called to instruct the people in the
word of life and to mold them to Christian
morality, should also, and above all, walk
before them in the practice of virtue. Let
pastors, therefore, do their best to drive the
plague of intemperance from the fold of
Christ by assiduous preaching and exhorta-
ton, and to shine above all as models of alb
stinence, that SO the many calamities with
which this vice threatens both church and
state may by their strenuous endeavors be
averted.
And we most earnestly beseech Almighty
God that, in this important matter, He may
graciously favor your desires, direct your
cOunsels, and assist your endeavors; and as
pledge of the divine protection, and as a
testimony of our paternal atfecti"1, we most
lovingly bestow upon you, venera, q brother,
and upon all your associates in this holy
league, the apostolic benediction.
Given at Rome, from st. Peters, this 9th
day of March, in the year 1887, the tenth
year of our pontificate. LEO XIII, Pope.